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posted by takyon on Monday March 11 2019, @04:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the killbots-and-cream dept.

The U.S. is seeking bids to improve its "basic" killbot to the the point where it can "acquire, identify, and engage targets at least 3X faster than the current manual process."

U.S. Army Assures Public That Robot Tank System Adheres to AI Murder Policy

Why does any of this matter? The Department of Defense Directive 3000.09, requires that humans be able to "exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force," meaning that the U.S. won't toss a fully autonomous robot into a battlefield and allow it to decide independently whether to kill someone. This safeguard is sometimes called being "in the loop," meaning that a human is making the final decision about whether to kill someone.

Industry Day for the Advanced Targeting and Lethality Automated System (ATLAS) Program. Also at Boing Boing.

Surely these will never be hacked!

Will an operator feel more trepidatious about taking life, due to not being in direct peril themselves? Or less because of greater desensitization? Anyone have any insightful links about drone operator psych outcomes? (Ed: Don't worry about it.)

Related information to inform the philosophical background of why having a human in the loop is required (they don't specify this but e.g. without the human, land mine agreements might start to apply): https://www.act.nato.int/images/stories/media/capdev/capdev_02.pdf

HEY EDITORS! I suggest a new topic: "tech and society" for stuff like this. (Ed: It's Digital Liberty.)


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:14PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:14PM (#812965)

    Actually Israel wanted to sign but the US asked them to show solidarity and not sign it. Practically speaking Israel hasn't deployed mines in decades and was demining the leftovers (the Syrians and Egyptians planted) since the early 2000s (ottawa was drafted in 97 and singed in 99) instead: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmines_in_Israel [wikipedia.org]

    Mines, white phosphorus and cluster bombs... Israel doesn't sign anything because everyone know they won't bother with those anyhow for the simple reason that have far worse in their arsenal so no one gives them a hard time over it except the usual crybabies.

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  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:03AM (1 child)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:03AM (#813024) Homepage Journal

    So true, they haven't used White phosphorus in 10 years -- Operation Cast Lead. Very successful operation and I think the White Phosphorus had a lot to do with that.

    Land Mine, I don't know about Land Mine. Except, I see some of our incredible soldiers. And where their Man Parts should be -- nothing. Not because they wanted it that way. But because of Land Mine. So horrible!

    And they haven't used Cluster Bomb since the 80s, the early 80s. Long time ago when John Mellencamp was still known as John Cougar -- remember Hurts So Good? Joan Jett, I Love Rock 'n' Roll. The Rolling Stones, Waiting on a Friend -- so much great music from that time, right? Anyway, it was the Lebanon thing. Where they, very successfully, used millions of Cluster Bombs -- proudly made in the U. S. A. -- to keep Iran out of that beautiful country. To keep the P.L. O., the Palestinian Libreation Organization, out of there. And to keep Lebanon Christian, so important. Lebanon was being invaded by Radical Muslims. And Israel fought very hard, very bravely against that for 20 plus years. Until the Israeli people foolishly elected a VERY WEAK & INEFFECTIVE leader. He "pulled out" his army. And Lebanon, unfortunately, has been Radical Muslim ever since. Thank you, Israel. Nice try, Israel. It was a good run!!!!

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday March 12 2019, @06:47AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday March 12 2019, @06:47AM (#813111) Homepage Journal

      By the way, 2006. We forget about 2006. Long time ago. Another time when Israel had to drop Cluster Bomb. And I forgot about that one. But, it was only a million that time!!!